The Wuhan Emergency Management Bureau announced today (26th) that the bureau’s subsidiary, the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center, has been targeted by a cyber attack from a foreign government-backed hacking organization. This follows the June 2022 attack on Northwestern Polytechnical University, making it another significant case of cyber assault.
The Bureau stated in its announcement that the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and the 360 Company have detected that parts of the network equipment at the earthquake data collection points of the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center were attacked by a foreign organization.
The Bureau claimed that the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center has promptly sealed off the related network equipment and reported the cyber attack to local public security authorities, reserving the right to pursue further legal action.
The Jianghan branch of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau subsequently issued a police notice confirming that a foreign-sourced trojan was found in the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center. This trojan can illegally control and steal the seismic intensity data collected by the earthquake early warning station. This act poses a serious threat to national security, and an investigation has been launched.
Experts explained that earthquake data, being crucial to gauging seismic destruction, are integral to national security. For instance, factors such as intensity are key considerations for military defense facilities.
According to the Global Times, this is another state institution that has been attacked after the Northwestern Polytechnical University last June. After the attack on the university, a technical team analysis eventually identified the culprit as the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) office of the US National Security Agency (NSA).
It is reported that a joint technical team has traveled to Wuhan for investigation, and initial evidence points to the United States as the origin of this attack.
NSA and CIA carry out cyber attacks worldwide
The 360 Company’s detection results show that the NSA has carried out cyber attacks on at least hundreds of important information systems in China, including a trojan program called “verifier” that is found to be operating in some departments’ information systems and transmitting intelligence to NSA headquarters. Notably, such programs also operate in large quantities in other countries, outnumbering those in China.
Additionally, research by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center found that the cyber attack tactics initiated globally by the CIA are showing signs of automation, systematization, and intelligence. Their cyber weapons follow strict espionage technical standards, and various attacks are coordinated and interlinked. Now, they cover almost all internet and IoT assets worldwide, and can control and steal significant, sensitive data from other countries anytime, anywhere.
In response to the cyber attacks suffered by China, the foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, stated in a press conference on the 19th that China is a victim of cyber attacks. China firmly opposes any form of cyber attack. The US has long been carrying out indiscriminate, large-scale cyber attacks against various countries around the world. It is worrying that the US Cyber Command openly listed the critical infrastructure of other countries as legitimate targets for US cyber attacks last year.